First Impressions
by PurpleyPlatypus
Summary: They would later tell anybody who asked that they had met in a deserted diner. That they couldn't possibly have not found their way to each other; it was destiny, it was fate. It still surprised them to this day that so many people bought into that crap. AliceXJasper


**First Impressions**

Chapter 1

* * *

They would later tell anybody who asked that they had met in a deserted diner. That they couldn't possibly have _not_ found their way to each other; it was destiny, it was fate. The result of Alice's vision that had led her to her true love, the end of Jasper's painfully long search for somebody to spend his life with.

It still surprised them to this day that so many people bought into that crap.

* * *

Alice Brandon loved her job. She got to meet a variety of people, the night shifts meant that she didn't have to face the daunting prospect of spending long hours wide awake alone, and she was kept just busy enough to avoid dwelling. Bar work suited Alice Brandon for the most part, and she knew how lucky she was to be both female and employed in post war Philadelphia.

But tonight was just one of those nights; it had started when she had banged her knee on the way out of her small home and continued throughout the day as she dropped her bag into a puddle on the way to the pub. Her day had been topped off when she had entered the pub and the resulting scramble in trying to get to the bar in between the bodies that represented the Friday night rush had ended in her being soaked by a none too small amount of alcohol.

And she would have gladly taken a bumped knee, or a waterlogged bag, and even the potent stench of alcohol that radiated off of her, if that was all it was. But she'd been thirsty; and on bad days it was all too easy to see the faces of the many lives she had taken simply to quench her thirst. To remember that she was responsible for broken up families, more graves than she could count, and more cumulative hours of mourning than anyone should have to shoulder, because she was weak. Because she couldn't take even a few days of the burning in her throat without having to cave into it's every whim. The worst of it was the knowledge that she wouldn't die from lack of blood; it wasn't necessary to her survival anymore than alcohol was necessary to the survival of the fifty or so men that had coalesced in the bar; the consequences of giving into such cravings were also much more severe.

Sure, one particularly inebriated man who was currently dancing on a table top would probably find himself the protagonist of several amusing anecdotes for the next few weeks, but his story wouldn't make headlines.

Perhaps one of the reasons she enjoyed bar work so much was because it reminded her she wasn't alone; the weakness of the men who flocked in time after time showed that she wasn't unique in that she possessed an inability to control her addictions. It dispelled loneliness in at least one sense. She would reason that working among addiction reminded her that perfection wasn't innate, that all too often it was a lie, that those who gave into personal cravings, whatever they were, was because they were only _human_ after all. That was when she would give a wry smile having identified the flaw in her argument, because she wasn't human, and therefore she didn't deserve such leniency.

She snorted, and kicked the bar lightly for good measure. What she needed was some serious retail therapy to lull her out of this pathetic wallowing; self pity didn't suit her.

"Alice?"

Guiltily she retracted her foot, and tilted her head to one side giving her boss the best 'I'm just an innocent little girl' look she could conjure – it was always incredibly effective. Luckily Will had either not noticed her taking her frustrations out on his inanimate property or didn't care.

"Do me a favour, my dear, and get me some of the reserve glasses from out back." Will shouted distractedly, simultaneously trying to pour drinks and wipe down the surface.

"Sure thing Will," she shouted back; quite frankly getting out of the loud, sweaty room if only for a few minutes would provide a welcome relief, and she promised herself that when she re-entered she would do so as the her usual upbeat self.

She walked into the back and sighed in content as a blast of cool air hit her. If she remembered rightly the spare glasses were stored at the back of the long corridor. She made a mental note to remind William that they really _did _need a clear out, she was passing stacks of cardboard boxes that were as tall as she was, and she was _sure _that she heard a high pitched squeak; they were probably getting mice again. Honestly, Will was a complete and utter scatterbrain, she wouldn't have put it past him to have ordered an entire crates worth of fresh food, inevitably forget about it, and leave it to slowly rot-

Alice was just reaching for a glass when she heard the squeak again. She froze and listened very carefully with her very capable ears. And although the squeak was gone, it had been replaced by the unmistakable sounds of skin on skin, heavy breathing, mixed in with the sweet smell of sweat.

She couldn't help it. Curiosity got the better of her and she found herself drawn towards the sounds with a self-destructiveness that was reminiscent of the way a moth was drawn towards a flame. She silently moved through the obstacle course of junk, careful not to catch her limbs on any of the unstable piles.

Alice froze.

She viewed the tangled limbs with simultaneous fascination and horror. There was no way to mince it; the two people in front of her were fucking. They weren't making love, and they weren't being intimate; what Alice had unwittingly stumbled in on were two people who were so carried away by the raw primal action that they hadn't even noticed her standing there. That was the only possible explanation, because both of them were vampires, and Alice knew first hand how developed their hearing would be. They were both stark naked, their clothes randomly scattered about them, a testament to the rush they had been in to fulfil their arousal. Under normal circumstances Alice would have ran.

But she couldn't look away.

They were against the wall, the woman's leg wrapped around the hips of the man as he continuously pounded into her. By the look on the woman's beautiful face she was clearly enjoying what was going on. Her eyes were scrunched tightly shut, long blonde hair bouncing with every thrust, and her teeth had sunk into her bottom lip in a mostly successful attempt to stop any moans from escaping her lips.

But Alice's attention wasn't fixed on the woman; the man held her attention.

His body, although lean and muscular, was completely covered in scars. The shape of which provided evidence that this was somebody who had lived through various run ins with vampires. That, or Alice reasoned, they were created by the nails of his lover as she clamped down on his skin when she achieved carnal bliss. This didn't detract from his beauty at all. It gave him a hint of danger, completing the subtle aura of alpha male that he had – because there was no getting around the fact this fact, whoever this vampire was every action he made screamed alpha male; from the way he slowly bought his partner to orgasm to the way his fists clenched on the wall either side of her head.

He gave a low growl, and Alice felt a familiar pool of warmth flair up between her legs.

Suddenly the man's head snapped round, and dark red eyes immediately found hers.

Now more than ever she needed to get out of that corridor, but Alice couldn't move.

She watched in embarrassment as the woman gave a hiss, muscles clenching and rippling as she reached her peak. The man's eyes slowly slid shut as he gave a grunt that signalled the arrival of his own orgasm, and just like that the connection was broken. Alice turned and ran back down the corridor, no longer conscious of the teetering piles of rubbish that she was knocking over in the process.

Alice barely registered the sudden burst of noise that signalled her entering the bar, because the primal urge to get as far away from the corridor as possible was almost as great as the one that had driven the two individuals into action. _Almost._

It took her a while to register that she had just walked past her boss.

"Alice?" Will questioned from behind her.

She turned around to face him and was unsurprised to see that he was wearing very much the look of a person who had been trying to get her attention for a fair amount of time. "Did you manage to get those glasses?"

"I… no," she replied. "I'll go right now-"

She cut herself off, as she noticed the source of her lack of articulation sneak out from behind the bar and into the mass of people, straightening clothes as they went. Once again the intelligent, piercing red eyes of the alpha male met hers. His countenance was apathetic, he appeared to be sizing her up, letting his gaze travelled slowly down and up her body, pausing without the slightest hint of humiliation first at the subtle curve of her breasts, and then at a much lower much more intimate spot.

The mans gaze revealed nothing about whether he liked what he was seeing, it was the way one might view a carpet or spoons before they bought them; with a grudging sense of necessity but disinterest. Yet despite herself she once again felt a pang of arousal well up inside of her, and almost as soon as it came over her, with a sense of Déjà vu, the red eyes snapped up to her own and a satisfied smirk materialised on the face the man.

It was as if he _knew._

She was snapped back to reality.

"Maybe you should sit down?" Will suggested softly, lifting a hand to her forehead to check her temperature. "You look pale, as if you could do with a good nights sleep."

She swatted the hand away quickly. It wouldn't do for him to realise she retained roughly the same amount of heat as an ice cube.

"I _always_ look like that," Alice replied absentmindedly, focusing her attention on trying to follow the man with her eyes. However, it seemed that he had tormented Alice enough for one night and was probably going somewhere else to continue where he had left off with his partner. But although he was tall, and although his unruly blonde hair stuck out against every attempt to restore order to it creating a figure that stuck out against the monotony of the bar, the density of the crowd proved too much for her senses, and she had soon lost him.

Will hummed in disapproval, but said nothing, instead choosing to slowly totter off to get the glasses himself murmuring something about the various disadvantages of hiring women.

She returned to her bar duty, resolving to do her utmost to forget about what she had just witnessed.

So of course she found herself unable to think of anything else. She wiped up various pools of water from the bar surface, and was reminded of wetness of another kind. She eavesdropped into the customers conversations – one man was talking about finding a suitable partner, stressing to his friend that it was "too _hard,_" which Alice's perverted mind once again translated away from it's true context. And when at the end of her shift one of the other bar staff got ready to leave and asked if she was _coming_ it was all she could do not to hit her head against the nearest rock.

Yes she had wanted a distraction, but this wasn't a welcome one. She wasn't by any stretch of the imagination a blushing virgin; that was to be expected when you had twenty-four hours a day to kill. But her sexual experiences were few and far between; only ever really when the odd vampire passed through and was inclined to relieve his lonely existence, no strings attached. And although all of her experiences had been satisfactory, she had never gotten to the point where she could barely contain her cries during orgasm. She had never felt turned on simply by a _look_ before. She pulled on her coat safe in the knowledge that she would in all likelihood never have to see the pair again, and so would not have to deal with the embarrassment of them knowing that she had witnessed their… business; and that once she was home she could have a much needed cold shower. It would hopefully go some way to paling the image of a certain butt that was probably going to be forever engrained on her retina.

Unconsciously Alice chewed on her nail. She _definitely_ needed some serious retail therapy - _that_ would allow her to forget her jealousy; because she was definitely jealous. Not so much of the sex although God knew that looked like it would be an experience, but of the fact that these two vampires had found someone they cared about so much they were unable to even wait to rip each other's clothes off; a feat Alice had yet to achieve. She shouted a goodbye to Will and stepped outside to start the six-block walk back to her apartment.

The street she stepped into was deserted, and only the soft glow from the lamps lit the dingy pathway. With a large sigh, she tightened her coat around her neck and took a step forward. Off course, what with the way her day had gone, it was foolish naivety that led her to believe that she would get home unbothered. She made it two steps.

"You work in a bar? How novel. Let me guess, desperate attempt to try and hold onto the last shreds of humanity you can remember?"

Even without her vampire eyes, which adjusted to darkness with lightning speed, Alice would have known who was addressing her without even looking. That deep, snarky voice couldn't possibly belong to anyone else.

Alice narrowed accusing eyes at the source. "Have you been waiting out here all this time?"

He detached himself from the wall he had been leaning against and moved closer to her. Physically he dwarfed her, he was easily a foot taller than she was and had to bend down to whisper in her ear:

"How else was I meant to ask if you'd be interested in a threesome?"

She placed her hand on his chest and shoved him away; both out a desire to lessen their proximity (because even just his breath on her ear was doing funny things to her insides) and a fear that if she didn't push him away she would agree, which would be embarrassing if he was, as she suspected, only joking.

"You certainly have a high opinion of yourself." Alice snorted, folding her arms.

He fixed her with the same smirk that he had given her inside the bar, a look that was designed to tell her that he had a _very_ good reason to have a high opinion of himself, and Alice was once again forced to face the daunting prospect that somehow he knew how he made her feel. Not just because he was a good guesser, or because he was a conceited up himself asshole (not that that wasn't true) but because somehow he actually knew, as easily as she knew that it was going to rain tomorrow.

"I should be getting home," she gulped. She couldn't trust herself around this man at all. One didn't associate with strange vampires that they didn't know, especially when all evidence pointed towards them being psychopaths. How could he have managed to turn this situation around so that she was more embarrassed than he was about what she saw? Did he have no sense of pride at all?

He put a mocking hand on his chest, "Without even so much as a name?"

"Common sense dictates that a woman should never give her name to a strange man," Alice replied, cleverly.

He shrugged. "I'm sure we can find another way to level the playing field."

He regarded her silently for a moment, as his words sank in.

Level the playing field? What was he on about-

Alice scowled, "Well you certainly have a one track mind."

"It's only fair, you have seen me naked after all." He reasoned.

"Surely I can find another way to return the mental scarring," Alice deadpanned.

Her comment was rewarded with a smile – not the sarcastic smirk that he had fixed her with before, but an actual smile, albeit reluctantly given. It transformed a severe face completely, and Alice was certain that if they weren't completely alone on the street then every girl in a five-mile radius would have rushed to where they were standing simply to share the same airspace as this man. She was just as equally as sure that if she was capable of the act she would be blushing; it was at least one perk of being a vampire.

"Alice," she managed to choke out. "Alice Brandon."

He once more carried out a surveillance of her figure, eyes wandering up and down slowly.

"Well Alice Brandon, maybe I'll see you around."

Hesitantly he dragged his eyes away from her and began his journey down the street. That wasn't fair! Did he think that he could just embarrass her, arouse her which led to further embarrassment, take her name, and then leave on his own terms?

"Wait," Alice shouted after him, wincing at the desperation in her voice. "What about you?"

He raised his eyebrows; _what about me?_

"You never said your name."

The mocking smirk returned, a stark contrast to the actual smiles that this man was capable of giving, and one which made Alice believe that this time every girl in a five-mile radius would have rushed to where they were standing simply to punch him in the face. He seemed to consider carefully, probably just a subtle way of letting her know that if he did give her his name it was because _he_ wanted to, not because she wanted him to.

"Jasper Whitlock."

He fixed her with a look that seemed to dare her to say something else, and when it was only met with a petulant silence from her he continued.

"I think that once again un-levels the playing field." He brushed a stray lock of hair from in his eyes. "I think I'll definitely see you around, Alice Brandon."

A correction of his earlier goodbye; a name for a name, exhibitionism for exhibitionism…

He moved quickly this time, and had soon disappeared from sight. She tried to assure herself the apparent magnetism of her eyes to his behind as he walked away was the result of his taller frame and the distance he was from her ensuring that it was just at the right eye level.

She groaned. Although she was unable to get a clear reading she could sense that this wasn't the last time she would see Jasper Whitlock, or his bum.

But in all honesty it was hardly surprising that Jasper Whitlock's ass was etched into her memory forever; that was his most prominent feature. Both because it was a damn good one, and because the man epitomised the insult arsehole.

* * *

TBC.


End file.
